FDA Sodium Reduction Targets and the Food Industry: Are There Incentives to Reformulate?

New research, published in The Milbank Quarterly, highlights the potential health and economic impact of the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) proposed voluntary salt policy on workers in the US food industry. This new study examined the impact of the policy on the food industry itself to determine the cost-effectiveness of meeting these draft sodium targets. The team modelled the health and economic impact of meeting the two-year and 10-year FDA targets, from the perspective of people working in the food system itself, over 20 years, from 2017 to 2036. They found that the benefits of implementing the FDA voluntary sodium targets extend to food companies and food system workers, and the value of CVD-related health gains and cost savings are together greater than the government and industry costs of reformulation.

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